StarTimes sticks to ‘adult TV’

Notwithstanding a ruling by South Africa’s Western Cape High Court to suspend broadcasting its adult channels, Johannesburg-based On Digital Media (ODM) is to continue transmissions of Playboy TV and two other channels.

The Court found that regulator ICASA’s approval for the broadcaster to transmit the channels was “flawed”. However, the ruling was made in favour of three independent applicants (Justice Alliance of South Africa (Jasa), Cause for Justice and Doctors for Life) had taken ICASA (and ODM/StarSat) to court.

Last week Mike Dearham, MD at StarTimes’ Media Division, and which is in the process of acquiring ODM, said in a statement that the pay-TV provider will “continue to enhance and enrich its content offering” and that its strategic intent is to be Africa’s “pre-eminent provider of compelling and relevant African content” and that it wants to be “a “role model for the rest of the continent”. StarSat/ODM is reportedly appealing the decision.

The channels have been on air since November 2013 but do not seem to have made much impact. Court documents say that only some 400 subscribers have signed up for the broadcasts.